This is my bright idea since I have really no upcoming races. (I’m registered for one in early June, and although I haven’t heard anything about it being cancelled, I’m sure it won’t happen.) I briefly talked about this plan in my April tea chat and I’m keeping track of my runs on my blog Instagram account.

I put together a plan last week with an end goal of completing 10 miles by September 1. Notice how I wrote “completing” instead of “running”? Because there is no way I would be able to run all 10 miles. And I’m okay with that. I use “complete” to encompass the fact that I’ll have to walk at some points.

The plan still includes running three times a week, which I like and works for me. I definitely wouldn’t want to run less than that, and running more than that a week would tire me out or increase my chance of hurting myself. I’ll either run Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday—depending upon the weather—and on Saturday, which will be my long run. My weekday runs are shorter, starting at two and three miles and increasing to around three to five by the end. The furthest I’ve run so far is 7 miles, so like 10 isn’t too far off, but I need to build up to running that far.

I do need to find things to do on my off days so that I’m still staying somewhat active. Walks with the dogs or walks by myself are an option. I’ve also been trying to acquire a yoga mat for the past month, which is a funny story.

I ordered one from Amazon on April 6 and was okay with the fact that although it was on Prime it might take a little longer to get to me. Cool, whatever. Then three weeks go by and it hasn’t even shipped yet, meanwhile my parents had ordered things from the same amount—I use my dad’s account since he has Prime and just pay him cash for whatever I get—and were getting them in reasonable amounts of time. (They ordered a dog bed—A DOG BED—and it came in less than a week.) So once the end of April hit, I tried cancelling the order and would order it from another website. I cancelled the order like five times and nothing was happening; it still hadn’t even shipped yet so I don’t know what the hold up was. So then last week I checked the order status and it said it would be at my house by 8:00 p.m. the following night but it hadn’t been shipped yet. Okay? It never came—surprise—and I asked for a refund. Now it says the package might be lost and I can’t really do anything else.

So the other night I ordered one from Gaiam and it should be coming Monday. I also ordered a few headbands from JUNK, and once I get the mat and headbands and use them for a while, I’ll make posts about both.

I’m also signing up for a race! It’s virtual put on by the Hartford Marathon Foundation and is happening between June 4 and 7. They give you three options to sign up for—5K, 10K, or half—or you can do all three. I’d like to do the 5K but the 10K fits into my running plan; my long run for that week is 6.5 miles, so 6.2 will do. I’m going to sign up this week. I’ll get a race technical shirt and medal (!!!) mailed to my house after it’s over, a downloadable bib and finisher’s certificate, and a portion of the registration is going toward the UConn Health COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. Since I have nothing else going on, I’m going to do a post-race post in the beginning of June.

So yeah, that’s my crazy idea. Thanks in advance to everyone who follows along on this journey.